Crossing Hathaway Read Online Free PDF Page B

branch on the way down. I didn’t expect him to be a big slab of beefcake with a face right out of a Calvin Klein ad with cut cheeks and symmetry I could stare at for hours. Men had never affected me that way, and certainly not pompous asses like him. Maybe I hadn’t really woken up yet and I was at home sleeping in my bed. Yeah, I wished.
    He stood like a statue for a long time, so long I squirmed and started for the door again before he could go off on me for looking at him.
    “When will Cameron return?” Mr. Hathaway asked from behind me.
    Like he didn’t already know. I swallowed and licked my dry lips. “He called me at home last night. He said he’d be back on Wednesday.”
    Mr. Hathaway made a sound that could have been a curse by the sharp edges on the word. “I can’t wait that long.”
    I’d have given up my left arm to escape Mr. Hathaway’s office at that moment, but my pride wouldn’t allow it. Cameron sent me there to do a job, and dammit, I’d get it done. “I can do anything Cameron can.”
    Hathaway uttered a bitter laugh. “Don’t be absurd.”
    “Excuse me?” I tried to glare at him, but had to avert my eyes when they did their best to devour his magnificence again. I considered telling him to put a shirt on, but I didn't want to risk him asking me why. Your yummy landscape is making me hot, Mr. Hathaway. Would you mind getting dressed? Yeah, that’d go over well. “Is this a gender thing? Because I’m a woman, you assume I’m an idiot?”
    He leaned back against the computer desk and folded his arms over his thick chest. “What’s your IQ?”
    My—what the blue blazes did that have to do with anything?
    “I don’t know, high enough to do my job. I mean, it’s not as if you’re doing rocket science in here.” I threw up my hands and commenced fidgeting with the bottom of my shirt.
    “Curb the attitude, Ms. Ross. It’s enough you’ve robbed me of my coffee, ruined my shirt and my carpet. I won’t tolerate insubordination on top of it.”
    I grimaced at the floor, clenched and unclenched the fingers of my unscalded hand. With tremendous effort, I talked myself out of screaming at him and forced my voice into a calm, even tone. “I’m sorry about your shirt and the carpet. Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Hathaway, or do you want me to leave?”
    I risked a glance at him.
    He stroked his fingers along the smoothly shaven edge of his jaw, his striking eyes lost in thought. “You say you can do the work. Prove it. Submit to testing and I’ll consider allowing you on my private network.”
    My mouth dropped open and I snapped it shut before he caught me. Seriously? He wanted me to interview for a job I’d been doing for a freakin’ year? I was pretty sure the test had already begun. If I said no, I’d be lazy and a coward, confirming his theory of my uselessness. If I said yes and failed the test, same result. I had to prove myself once and for all, or my career hopes at Hathaway Pharmaceuticals might very well be over.
    I nodded. “Okay, fine, you’re on. What kind of test?”

    Chapter 4

    Mr. Hathaway sat at the desk beneath the projector and opened an Internet browser. “Turn around, Ms. Ross. Your test will begin momentarily.”
    “Uh … why do I need to turn around?” And why did I keep uh-ing and ah-ing around him like a teenaged groupie?
    Is he going to clock me over the head with the keyboard and plaster me into the wall?
    “Do it, or fail.”
    In a huff, I turned and stared at the glowing exit sign above the door, fantasizing about the moment I could walk out of his office and never come back. My burned hand continued to throb, though not as badly as before. I had a fleeting thought that he could at least have kissed it better before I smacked myself in the forehead.
    His fingers clacked against the keys faster than I imagined he’d be capable of. “Study the photo carefully. You have five seconds, after which I’ll question you about what you